Alice Fountain

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Alice E. Fountain (Teeny-Tina) passed away Nov. 19, 2012. She was 85.

Services will take place at 6 p.m. Nov. 29, 2012, Church of Christ, 670 Whiting St., Grass Valley, Calif.

Tina was born in Oklahoma in 1927. She moved to California with her husband, Jay Cheatham, and son James Cheatham to Sunnyvale, where they began a gas station and auto mechanic shop and Jay raced cars. She spent hours in the mirror after moving to California trying to get rid of her Oklahoma accent, and she did, although she kept several of her “Okie” phrases that often surprised people when she would hurl one at them. Soon after moving to Sunnyvale, she had her second child, Jarrod Cheatham. After the loss of Jay to a racing accident, Tina went to work for an electronics company and eventually met Horrace “Duke” Fountain, whom she married in the early ’60s. They moved to Rough and Ready in 1971 and ran their Lady Bug Farm on Lady Bug Lane. Duke passed in the late ’90s, and Tina continued doing small amounts of lady bug sales until the early 2000s when she decided to downsize to a mobile home in Grass Valley. In her later years, Tina loved dancing, going to church and spending time with her family and her companion Robert Dunn. Every person who has ever met Tina is instantly lit up with her sweet smile and spit-fire attitude, both of which were full of love. She lost her son, Jarrod, to a motorcycle accident in 2006.

She is survived by her brother, Gene Dotson; her son, James Cheatham, and grandchildren James S Cheatham, Kenneth Cheatham, Kathy Miller, Christy Lynn Ruhl and Jarrod Cheatham, as well as step-grandchildren Robert Williams and Rebecca Burnett.

There are countless extended family and friends who will miss her dearly.